Hypebot asked RealNetworks why its Rhapsody music service has not added DRM-free download options as iTune has done. Here's an excerpt:

"We think it makes sense to wait until a sizable amount of music is available for sale DRM-free, and for now we're continuing to encourage the labels to embrace the DRM-free model. It would be good for their business and good for consumers, and would allow anyone to sell music that plays on the #1 portable player, the iPod. Based on our conversations with the labels, we feel that considerable progress is being made on that front, and predict that 2008 will be a landmark year in the transition to a DRM-free sales model. ...

As to why we're not out now with an indies + EMI-only DRM-free offering, while it's a substantial amount of music, from our perspective it doesn't yet reach that threshold of being able to offer most of what consumers are looking for."

My translation: We don't want to lift the curtain on DRM-free downloads until we get more than one of the four majors -- which we predict will happen next year.